7 Mistakes That Kill Startups

In one way, there is just one mistake that will kill a start up. It’s something simple but yet so tricky.

Not making something users want.

This is what will kill all start ups.

However, there are many smaller mistakes that cause startups to not make something users want.

1. Single Founder

Building a startup on your own is hard.

Even if you could manage the workload you still need people to brainstorm with, talk you out of bad decisions and help you keep going when things get tough.

2. Bad Location

By not basing yourself in a startup hub, you’re keeping yourself away from industry experts, top tech talent that you’ll need to hire and you could also miss out on potential partnerships with complementary businesses.

3. Marginal Niche

Choosing a small obscure niche to avoid competition is a common problem. The thing is, you can only avoid competition by avoiding good ideas.

If you’re making something good, expect competition. In fact you should embrace it.

4. Hiring Bad Programmers

Unlike in the 90’s, most Founders these days are technically gifted.

However if you or your Co-Founder aren’t programmers you’ll need to get some top tech talent in early.

The difference between a great and poor product is a bad Programmer.

5. Slowness in Launching

It’ natural to want everything to be perfect before launching but there will always be something to change (you may also be beaten to the punch!).

You need to launch quickly so you can get feedback from your users and continue to learn and grow through your audience.

6. Raising too Little Money

If you take money from investors, you have to take enough to ensure your startup reaches the next level.

You will have some control over how much spend and what that next step os.

Be sure to set both low – be careful what you spend and make your initial goal simply to build a solid prototype. This will give you maximum flexibility.

7. Choosing the Wrong Investor

Speaking of how to use your investment, it’s important to choose and manage the right investor.

As a Founder, it will be your responsibility to manage your Investors.

You need to strike a careful balance between ignoring them and letting them run your company.

As long as you’re demonstrating progress, most Investors will leave you to it.

However, it doesn’t always go that smoothly and Investors have made trouble for even some of the most successful startups (think Apple).
Be sure to choose the right Investor and that the balance in the relationship is right.

Of course these aren’t the only factors that can kill a start up but they are mistakes that are in your control.

We can help with mistake No.4 – Hiring bad Programmers. We work with you, on site, as part of your team. Our people have helped to build teams for Skype, Spotify and more. If you’d like help building your team, get in touch here .

We work with high growth gaming studios to ensure they hire the best staff for their companies and their environments. We work with you, on site, as part of your team. We’ve helped to build teams for Supercell, Klarna, Farmdrop and more. If you’d like help building your team, get in touch here .